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Tuesday, June 24. 2008

News Posted by William ORourke in News

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The View from the Couch: Public Money

The view from the West Coast is both short sighted and endless: it's that ocean
out there, going on forever.  But politics here seems decidedly local, given
that a host of reforms are already in place, i.e., water rationing, nitpicking
recycling laws, gas guzzlers scorned and, at times, defaced.  Out here cable
news remains on east coast time, so unless one is watching in the middle of the
afternoon, it's the shows CNN and Fox fill up the night with, Hannity and Colmes,
Anderson Cooper, on at dinner time.  And speaking of east coast time, one bit of
information from out west needs to be put here, since I have seen it no where
else.  Taking a float trip in Wyoming, the guide regaled us with the tale of
Saudis who took over a dude ranch near Jackson Hole.  That is not strange,
since they have billions to spend where ever they go.  What was strange is when
Saudis travel it is always Saudi time.  Fancy restaurants would accommodate
them:they would have dinner, shop, etc., at 3 AM.  Whatever their Swiss watches told
them was the time was the time. The hired help wasn't as happy with the
arrangements, though, as the owners were.  Evidently, it's a Saudi world, and
the rest of us just live in it.  But it is, ultimately, a matter of money, as
it is with Barack Obama's decision to spurn public financing for his run for
the White House.

Obama early on couldn't quite believe the money that was coming in via the
Internet.  Then public financing seemed like the ticket, with Hillary ahead in
the polls.  But the whiz kids running his campaign hadn't yet figured out that
the Internet had finally matured, or, rather, the public had grown accustomed
to typing out credit card numbers and sending them out into the ether.  As much
as Tiger Woods paved the way for the Obama ascendancy, so did eBay.  Back in
1996, the election I wrote a long book about, the Internet played almost no
role, being in some regards, just in its infancy.  But here in 2008 it's
matured, considered safe, and the money flows all over on it.  Barack wants it.
Bob Dole, in '96, was stuck with public financing and was out of money over
the summer before those funds finally kicked in.  Not that it would have made a
lot of difference in that Bill Clinton second term campaign.  But here in
California everyone, including some staunch Republican in-laws, think Obama is a shoo-in.
I hope so.  In any case, the only Republican that could have given Obama a run
for his money is currently running away from his collection of Hummers.  Gov.
Arnold, save for the pesky rule about being born here in the US of A, would be
the GOP's boy.  As one of a kind as Obama's story is, Arnold Schwarzenegger's
is even wilder.

(Written Friday June 20, 2008;posted today because of tech glitches.)


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